SC clears way for MBBS entrance examination

Kathmandu, September 15

The Supreme Court today vacated the stay order issued against Institute of Medicine, barring it from conducting entrance exam for MBBS programme.

A joint bench of justices Ishwor Prasad Khatiwada and Manoj Kumar Sharma issued the order in response to a writ petition filed by Ayush Ojha against medical institutions, including IoM, and the government.

As per the SC’s recent ruling all medical institutions can now conduct MBBS entrance examinations. The Supreme Court on September 6 had stayed the IoM’s entrance exam. After hearing arguments from both parties, the SC said there was a provision in the National Medical Education Act which stated that the merit list will be maintained as per the entrance exam conducted by universities and academies until the Medical Education Commission started conducting entrance examinations.

“It is not judicious to issue an interim that affects academic calendar of various educational institutions when thousands of students are preparing to sit for the entrance exam. Question of scholarship raised by the writ petitioners can also be addressed later,” the SC said.

Petitioners had argued in their writ that the medical institutions had planned to conduct MBBS entrance exams without allocating 75 per cent scholarship seats, a mandatory provision in the newly passed National Medical Education Act.